• About
    • Ethics policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Ownership, funding and corrections
    • Complaints procedure
    • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Newsletter
Brighton and Hove News
14 July, 2025
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Opinion
    • Community
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Food and Drink
  • Sport
    • Brighton and Hove Albion
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Opinion
    • Community
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Food and Drink
  • Sport
    • Brighton and Hove Albion
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
No Result
View All Result
Brighton and Hove News
No Result
View All Result
Home 999

Brighton double murder trial – victim’s mother tells of pornographic claim

by Frank le Duc
Tuesday 30 Oct, 2018 at 4:52PM
A A
0
Man arrested over ‘Babes in the Wood’ murder of two Brighton girls

Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway

The mother of one of two nine-year-old girls murdered in Brighton told a jury that she was aware of allegations that her daughter Nicola Fellows had been the subject of a pornographic film.

Susan Eismann, formerly Fellows, said that she had heard about the claim made by the defendant Russell Bishop’s ex-girlfriend Marion Stevenson.

Bishop, 52, a former roofer who lived in Stephens Road, Hollingdean, is on trial for the murder of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, both of Newick Road, Moulsecoomb.

At the Central Criminal Court – better known as the Old Bailey – Mrs Eismann said: “I first heard of an allegation made by Marion of Nicola being in a pornographic film in 1986.

“I heard the allegation through speaking to people in the area and also through my police liaison officer.”

Mrs Eismann said that she hadn’t spoken to her ex-husband about it and she wouldn’t have dared.

She also said that Mr Fellows had hit her elderly and outspoken grandmother, breaking her nose, because of something that she had said.

And that he had hit Nicola who was “dotty over her father but also wary”.

Brian Altman, prosecuting in the trial of former Brighton roofer Russell Bishop for the murder of the two girls, said: “Barrie slapped your grandmother? He broke her nose?”

Mrs Eismann said yes.

Mr Altman said that the police were called but that Mrs Eisman’s grandmother did not want to press charges.

Mrs Eismann said that her daughter and her father loved each other in “a child’s way”. She said: “If she was out of control, if she was naughty, he would slap her.”

In a statement to the police in 1986, she said: “Nicola was dotty over her father but was also wary of him. She knew what he said went.”

Murder victims Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway

Karen Hadaway’s mother Michelle Johnson was asked about concerns that she had about Barrie Fellows.

They were set out in a letter in 1989 after one of her ward councillors Gordon Wingate came to her house with another man to speak with her.

It turned out that the other man was Bishop’s uncle, Michael Dawes.

Mrs Johnson, wrote in the letter about her concerns about Mr Fellows’ strange behaviour, saying: “I’m afraid that Barrie Fellows’ strange and unnatural behaviour since my daughter was murdered has not got any better.”

According to Mrs Johnson, he had told her that it was “lucky Karen had not been beaten before she died”.

She said that she found this strange because she had been told what had happened.

Joel Bennathan, defending, suggested that Mr Fellows night have known more than her because he had been to identify his daughter’s body.

Mr Fellows also said a number of times that Karen had been in the “wrong place at the wrong time”.

Mrs Johnson earlier wept as she spoke about the moment when the girls were found.

She said: “I was all upset, confused and did not know where I was. I was just terrified about my little girl … worried about both them children.”

The girls vanished after school on Thursday 9 October 1986, having last been seen in Wild Park, in Moulsecoomb, not far from their homes.

After an intensive and increasingly desperate search, their bodies were found in a den in undergrowth on a hillside in the park the next day.

The jury was told that Bishop had been charged with murdering the girls and tried at Lewes Crown Court in 1987.

He was acquitted but unusually he has been ordered to stand trial again because advances in DNA science meant that there was new evidence to justify a retrial.

The court was also told that in 1990 Bishop was convicted of kidnapping, indecently assaulting and trying to murder of a seven-year-old girl at the Devil’s Dyke, just outside Brighton.

Bishop denies two counts of murder.

The trial continues.

ShareTweetShareSendSendShare

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Most read

Water company brings in hosepipe ban after dry spring and heatwaves

Inquest opens after baby dies in Brighton hospital just days after her birth

Boy, 15, seriously injured in sword attack

Man jailed for betting shop robberies in Brighton and Hove

Charlotte Tilbury opens new store in Brighton

Brighton double murder trial – victim’s mother tells of pornographic claim

Brighton burglar jailed after £100,000 raid on jeweller

Bob Dylan to open UK tour in Brighton

Rough sleeper banned from station for playing piano

Plan to revive Preston Village given warm welcome by council

Newsletter

Arts and Culture

  • All
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Food and Drink
Jessica Winter has ‘Got Something Good’ going on

Jessica Winter has ‘Got Something Good’ going on

13 July 2025
Palindrones headline a night of darkwave sounds in Brighton

Palindrones headline a night of darkwave sounds in Brighton

13 July 2025
Love Supreme Festival 2025: Day Two with Jacob Collier and friends

Love Supreme Festival 2025: Day Two with Jacob Collier and friends

13 July 2025
American post-punk band The Wants to play ‘Bastard’ set

American post-punk band The Wants to play ‘Bastard’ set

12 July 2025
Load More

Sport

  • All
  • Brighton and Hove Albion
  • Cricket
Sussex Sharks open T20 Blast with a win

Hampshire Hawks thwart Sussex Sharks in Blast

by Alex Smith - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
13 July 2025
0

Hampshire Hawks 171-4 (17.2 overs) Sussex Sharks 167-7 (20 overs) Hampshire Hawks win by six wickets James Vince hit the...

We have an awful lot of work to do, says Sussex coach

Sussex must up their game in T20, says disappointed Farbrace

by Alex Smith - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
11 July 2025
1

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “It is a hugely disappointing night. We haven’t been consistent in the last three...

Sussex Sharks open T20 Blast with a win

Sussex Sharks flounder against Essex in T20 at Chelmsford

by Alex Smith - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
11 July 2025
0

Essex 148-4 (16.1 overs) Sussex Sharks 145 (18.2 overs) Sussex Sharks lost to Essex by six wickets Michael Pepper’s pyrotechnical...

Brighton and Hove Albion to receive freedom of the city

Brighton and Hove Albion sell winger to Sunderland for £21m

by Frank le Duc
10 July 2025
0

Brighton and Hove Albion have sold international winger Simon Adingra to Sunderland in a deal reported to be worth about...

Load More
October 2018
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Sep   Nov »

RSS From Sussex News

  • Man dies in three-car crash 13 July 2025
  • Boy, 15, injured in sword attack 13 July 2025
  • Water company brings in hosepipe ban after dry spring 11 July 2025
  • Police officer spared prison after being caught with child porn 11 July 2025
  • Airline fined for flying puppy to Gatwick before it had rabies jab 10 July 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy
  • Complaints
  • Ownership, funding and corrections
  • Ethics
  • T&C

© 2023 Brighton and Hove News

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Opinion
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
  • Sport
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Contact

© 2023 Brighton and Hove News